Campaign against the proposed Irish blasphemy law

The advocacy group Atheist Ireland is campaigning actively against a government attempt to bring Ireland back to medieval times by reviving a blasphemy law. This is where the campaign is at the moment:

Atheist Ireland has hosted public meetings against the proposed law in Waterford, Dublin, Cork and Limerick. You can see videos from these meetings at our campaign website http://blasphemy.ie.

We have also provided this written submission to the all-party Justice Committee that is debating the proposed law. We are in the process of preparing an updated submission.

Also, in order to ridicule the concept of the law, we have started a new religion called the Church of Dermotology. We worship Irish justice Minister Dermot Ahern and we will be insisting that our sacred beliefs are protected by his proposed blasphemy law.

We are now moving into a four-stranded campaign of

(1) Lobbying of politicians, especially members of the Justice Committee.
(2) Building a broader coalition against the proposed bill
(3) Examining legal challenges to the proposed law
(4) Continuing with public advocacy including public meetings, gigs etc.

If you would like to help in any way, please check out our campaign website at http://blasphemy.ie.

In particular, letters or emails from abroad would be helpful, either from citizens or politicians, letting Irish politicians know of the damage to Ireland's reputation internationally of reviving medieval legislation in the 21st century.

Please follow our Twitter feed (started today) at @blasphemyie. I also provide updates on the campaign on my personal Twitter account at @micknugent.

This is a very important issue, not only for Irish citizens, but also in terms of its impact on other countries (particularly Muslim countries) where blasphemy laws are used and abused to infringe on people's human rights, and where international pressure against such laws is weakened by the introduction of similar laws in supposedly pluralist republics like Ireland.

Thanks very much for reading this, and for any help that you can give to our campaign.

Replies to This Discussion

"We believe ice cream wafers are literally the body of Dermot Ahern.
We believe Dermot Ahern created the universe on Wed 20 may 2009.
We’re sometimes not sure whether Dermot Ahern really exists.
We believe it is blasphemous to publish an image of Dermot Ahern.
We refuse to gather sticks on the Sabbath, which is Wednesday.
We wear magic underpants that protect us from fire and bullets.

We are outraged whenever anybody insults our sacred beliefs.
We fervently support Dermot Ahern’s proposed blasphemy law.
If it is passed, we will be regularly outraged, and will take test cases.

Like Scientologists, Dermotologists offer a free personality test.
Question one: are you vulnerable? Question two: have you money?
If you answer yes to either of these questions, you’re in."

I have seen the light, and am joining the first Church of Dermotology.